Stanford offers a peek into its extensive Apple history archives

Did you know that early Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, created a …

What we wouldn't give to watch a "Blue Busters," a company video made by Apple employees—yes, including Steve Jobs—posing as IBM-fighting Ghost Busters. Such a video does exist, and it's currently housed at Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives as part of a collection donated by Apple and its employees. The location of the archive is in the San Francisco Bay area and its address is top secret (it's not currently open to the public), but Stanford recently opened it up to the Associated Press to give the organization a peek as to what kinds of historical tidbits might be hidden inside.

According to the AP, Apple itself had been collecting historical items about the company for years in order to eventually open its own Apple history museum. Those plans were dashed, however, when cofounder and eventual CEO Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997—Jobs, at the time, made it his goal to cut underperforming projects to save money, and the museum ended up falling under the butcher's knife. Instead, the company called up Stanford, which was glad to take the collection off Apple's hands. Since the donation, other company executives, early employees, and even enthusiasts have donated their own items to the archives.

Besides this never-to-be-seen Ghost Busters parody video, what might be contained within these archives? Financial records from early sales of the Apple II, documents from a $5,000 loan made to Apple in 1976, blueprints from the first Apple computer, and more. "Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," Stanford historian Leslie Berlin told the AP. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."